The sorting and bunching of flowers and other produce which must be sorted according to length is generally accomplished manually. The sorted bunches are then manually or automatically cleaned, tied and cut.
There exist on the market two devices for sorting and tying of flowers. One, made by SMITS b.v. Machinebouwen Transportbanden, Bergeyk, Holland, comprises first and second rotating endless belts, the second beginning beneath the end of the first. The apparatus further comprises bunching apparatus for receiving single flowers, bunching them in groups of ten, and depositing them in tied bunches on the second endless belt. The bunching apparatus comprises four rotating adjacent chains, each bearing a plurality of pin members which collect the desired number of single flowers and bunch them together.
Due to the fact that flowers are laid on the first rotating belt by the worker individually, the tied bunches are not neat and orderly and, therefore, require manual straightening at the end of the mechanical process. Furthermore, due to this fact that the rate of speed at which the apparatus processes the flowers, only a limited number of workers can work at the machine at one time and the machine's output is limited.
The second device is manufactured by Olimex b.v., Holland and comprises a plurality of troughs mounted on an endless rotating chain. Sorting tables are arranged above the troughs, each worker standing at a sorting table. This device is adapted to bunch 20 flowers taken from four consecutive troughs. Each group of 20 as it is collected from the troughs is tied and cut and falls onto a conveyer belt for removal. There is no cleaning of the flower stems.
Both these devices suffer from the disadvantage that flowers or produce of only one length can be bunched at any one time. Thus, all the workers at all the sorting tables must sort flowers of the same length at the same time, and flowers of different lengths must be returned to the pile to be sorted later.